Fire Pit Kits

Filed under:Best Home Improvement, Layout, Design — posted on June 21, 2008 @ 8:29 am


There are thousands of different fire pit kits on the market today. It is very difficult to make a decision on which one to purchase. With like anything that you decide to purchase your best bet is to start your efforts with research. You can obtain lots of information, a wide variety of businesses that see fire pit kits, different styles and sizes, and a price range that will fit your budget. Your decision will be first based on how much money you can budget for the fire pit. After making that decision start with that research and find the perfect fire pit kit that will suit your needs.

You definitely want to ensure yourself of the longevity of a fire pit. You want to make sure it is weather resistant, because were will your fire pit be? Of course outside probably in your back yard, near the pool or deck, in your garden, or maybe along side the structure of your home. Also it is very important to make sure that every item that is made of some sort of metal is rustproof. You fire pit burner should be rustproof to ensure the longevity of the product. They are kind of expensive so I don’t think you would want to replace one year after year.

Learn the Symptoms of Having Your Hair Fall Out

Filed under:Improving Your Health — posted on @ 6:50 am

The universal term for hair loss is alopecia. The very most complained sort of hair loss is male pattern baldness and affects regularly one third of gents and girls. This kind of hair loss is naturally forever.

Permanent hair loss comes in a variety of types. Male pattern baldness can happen in the extraordinarily early part of a blokes life, with hair loss and baldness beginning as early as 20 years old. The usual first signs can include loss and baldness of hair around the top part of the head and of course at the hairline above the forehead. The result might be partial or full hair loss.

Female pattern baldness is similar to male pattern baldness resulting in permanent hair follicle loss. This kind of hair loss and baldness is commonly developed after a lady gives birth. The hormone imbalance causes hair loss although girls do not generally experience total hair loss.

The last sort of permanent hair loss is by Cicatricial. This appears when some inflammation in the scalp causes scarring of the scalp and the hair follicles fall out forever and never come back. The person may lose hair folicles in different parts of the scalp, or even spread all over the scalp. Explore the latest hair loss techniques from Advanced Hair Studio, home to hair restoration.

With forever hair loss the astonishing solution for legions of girls and guys might often be to seek advice from a hair centre in order to gain back hair.

Grand Unique Gift Ideas for 21st Birthday Presents For The 21st Century

Filed under:Best Shopping Resources, Counsel, Lifestyle Stuff — posted on June 19, 2008 @ 9:54 pm

Great 21st birthday present ideas represent credit of an acquired goal in life. Not only cultural but social as well. 21st birthday is a landmark birthday celebrated extensively in the 21st century, and is measured to be one of the most important days in a person’s life. Eighteen is legal by law but 21 is considered a legal adult. Searching for 21st birthday unique gift ideas is easy when you know where to look. A life truth.

The present presented on this day is a symbol of love, and conveys your good wishes and blessings for a bright future of the 21 year old. Goodies should be in accordance with the wantings and spirit of the birthday girl or boy. Next are some present ideas for the 21st birthday:

Gold Timepiece

If your financial plan OK’s, you can present the birthday chico or chica a gold watch with his or her name and birthdate carved on it.

Silver Jewelry

You can get him or her passes to their first silver jewelry magic concert. It is a great present idea, natural and more accessible than anything its equal.

A Sports Gift Gala

21st birthday calls for gala and nothing can be more exciting than a sport gifts birthday party. Most households are multiple opportunities for sports present joy.

Video Collections and Gaming Accessories

The 21st birthday respects the introduction of formative years and a stage of great responsibilities. Therefore, the present to be had this day should be extraordinary. Use your vision to give tailored or inspirational gifts as well.

Salute of life is great to celebrated and wise to do so. Life is to be loved and gained. It is and will always be a time of musing of what was and a intuition into what will be. The receiving loved one will think kindly on the one that gives such 21st birthday present. Click Here to visit Shodega.com

What Is Homeschooling And How Do I know If It’s Right For My Family?

Filed under:Kiddie Stuff — posted on @ 3:04 pm

Do you know what these famous people have in common?

  • Alexander Graham Bell

  • George Patton

  • Albert Einstein

  • Benjamin Franklin

  • Winston Churchill

  • Agatha Christie

  • George Bernard Shaw

  • Will Rogers

If you guessed that they were all homeschoolers, you’d be correct. This is a very short list of famous and successful people who were educated at home. If you would like to expand this list, do a search on the Internet for ?famous homeschoolers.? There are many websites that list these people and some provide detailed biographies. There is even a book called, aptly, ?Famous Homeschoolers,? by Nancy and Malcolm Plant. (http://www.fun-books.com/specials.htm)

The point here is to get into the mindset that people can be educated and become successful adults without attending public school. And because I can almost ?hear? what you are thinking, no, it is not necessary to have a high school diploma to go to college.

So what is homeschooling? In the broadest sense, homeschooling is educating your children at home. You, as parent, become teacher. Parents homeschool for more reasons than you can imagine. Some want to avoid having their children exposed to violence and peer pressure. Some homeschool so that they can make sure their children’s education adheres to their religious beliefs. Some live a different lifestyle?perhaps they travel a lot?and want their children’s schooling to be flexible enough to fit around that life style. And some, like me, simply enjoy being with their children. They don’t want the public school to interrupt and weaken the parent/child bond that they have been working hard to create for the first five years of their child’s life.

Just as there are many reasons to homeschool, there are many methods of homeschooling. All the way from ?un-schooling? (learning by doing, learning from life, not using textbook type materials) to ?school at home? (using textbooks at desks set up in a schoolroom at home) and everything in between. It’s very easy to find hundreds of homeschool Websites by using a search engine, but just to get you started, try:

Jon’s Homeschool Resource Page http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/

When I decided to write this article, I thought hard about what I could offer that wasn’t being displayed on thousands of Websites on the Internet. I realized that the only thing I have to offer anyone interested in homeschooling is?my experience. So everything in the article below comes from my fifteen years of experience homeschooling my four youngest children. I hope it is of some use to you.

Deciding to homeschool your child may be one of the most important decisions you ever make as a parent, and it will take a lot of thought and soul searching. To the newcomer, it may seem impossible, overwhelming and very, very lonely. But like most huge obstacles, once it’s broken down into smaller pieces, it becomes manageable. We’ll take it one step at a time, in small enough chunks to get a hold of. So, if you’re game, roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work figuring out if homeschooling is for you and your child.

First things first. Organization is the key. Get a three-ring binder (homeschooling parent’s LOVE three-ring binders) and put a label on the front. (If you’ve made the transition to digital record keeping, you can just start a folder on the computer. But it’s not as much fun.) Label it something serious, like ? My Homeschooling Plans? or ?Homeschooling Thoughts.? Put some paper in the binder, find a really comfortable ink pen, and sit down somewhere quiet.

Ready? Good. Now, let’s get started.

What are your reasons for considering homeschooling? Even if you haven’t actually made the decision to homeschool, the fact that you are here reading this article says you are curious. Perhaps you honestly don’t know the answer yet?and that’s ok. The remainder of this article is going to try to help you start to find those answers.

Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but each state has it’s own set of laws that must be followed. Compulsory (how I hate that word) education here in Washington State starts at the age of 8. Even though I had been homeschooling him from birth, to stay legal once my son reached 8-years old, I was required to become ?certified.? That meant I either had to have two years of college education, or take a ?certification class.? I met this requirement by taking an independent correspondence class, during which I was asked to put on paper my goals, philosophies and reasons for wanting to homeschool. I’d like to help you do the same right now.

Start a page–either the ?tree? kind or a file on the computer?and title it ?My Educational Beliefs.? List what personal beliefs you have about education?especially the education of your own children. Get as detailed as you can here–the value is in the thinking process behind the list. Take your time, I’m in no hurry.

As an example to get you started, I’m going to share with you what I wrote on my list nine years ago.

My Educational Beliefs

1. I believe my child’s attitude about learning should be:

One of continual curiosity and seeking of knowledge.

2. I believe my child’s learning should lead towards a lifestyle that is:

Rural, physically active, creative.

3. I believe these basic values should be part of my child’s learning:

  • Respect for others

  • Loyalty to family and friends

  • Honesty

  • Generosity

4. I believe children learn best:

Through hands-on learning experience, reading, workbooks.

5. I believe a teacher should:

  • Provide side-by-side assistance and direction.

  • Interact with the child.

  • Provide the structure within which the child may explore, experiment, study and achieve.

  • Provide a good example of excitement in learning.

6. Other beliefs:

I believe my child should grow up to be self-reliant and occupationally secure in a field of high interest to them.

Now, that wasn’t too bad, was it? Don’t give up on this until you have at least something written down, but don’t agonize over it either. You can come back to it later if need be. Next, start a paper or file titled ?Life Goals For My Child.?

I want you to write down what kind of person you envision your child being as an adult. What are your hopes and dreams for him/her? What educational gifts do you hope to be able to help them find that will serve them their entire lives?

I’ll share mine from 9 years ago, just to get you started.

?Life Goals for My Child?

7. Be literate.

8. Be self-reliant.

9. Compete well in their chosen field of occupation.

10. Appreciate art, music, and literature.

11. Be creative.

12. Be inventive and resourceful.

13. Be healthy, mentally and physically.

14. Co-operate with others.

15. Maintain a strong sense of self-worth.

16. Maintain a life-long curiosity, seeking knowledge as a way of life.

17. Look to the future with a sense of excitement and adventure.

For the last exercise, start a third paper titled: Why We (I) Am Going To Homeschool Our (My) Child? (Yes, single parents can successfully homeschool their children.) You may not have all the answers for this one yet either, but just get something down. All of these ideas and beliefs can start getting mixed in with other people’s opinions once we start educating ourselves in depth about homeschooling, and you’ll be glad you have these lists tucked away.

Okay, here’s my old list:

Why We Are Going To Homeschool Our Children

Our family consists of myself, my husband, a 21-year-old daughter, a 19-year-old daughter, an 8-year-old son, a 7-year-old daughter, a 4- year old daughter, and an unborn son due in 6 months. My two oldest daughters (from my first marriage) were in the public school system for the whole of their educational years. It is largely a dissatisfaction with the public schools and all it’s attendant problems (academic, social, and moral) that has caused us to make the decision to homeschool our youngest children. We decided, even before our 8-year-old son (the oldest of the younger set) was born, that somehow we would find an alternative to the public schools.

We want to homeschool for some additional reasons. We want added closeness with our children. We want more independence, greater control over our family’s moral and philosophical values, and better awareness of our children’s interests.

We dislike the thought of any government agency–no matter how well meaning–directing the raising of our children.

We intend to homeschool because we do not want our children’s academic, social, and moral education taken out of our hands.

We believe these areas of a child’s education are a parent’s responsibility, right, and pleasure.

I’d like you to spend some time going over these lists until you feel they accurately reflect your feelings about homeschooling your children. When I did these exercises, I had only a vague idea about why I wanted to homeschool and what kind of education I wanted to help my children acquire. These simple exercises helped me to ?solidify? my ideas and provided the basis for our future homeschooling methods. I hope they help you to do the same. Keep these lists in a safe place and add to them as you explore the possibility of homeschooling your child.

About The Author

Anita York has been homeschooling her four youngest children for the past 15 years. In addition, she teaches other homeschoolers at two resource centers, and is a contracted Senior Editor, Editor, Copyeditor and Manuscript Screener for three publishers.

Her book “You CAN Homeschool Your Child” is available from One-At-A-Time Enterprises, the business she started with her homeschoolers. Available at: http://www.L7S.net/Item.php?ID=YC000.

Her home business, EagleMountain Reading, Writing, and Research Services http://www.L7s.net/eaglemountain provides a variety of services geared towards helping beginning as well as established authors with various aspects of the writing process.

support@L7S.net

When and How Do I Track My Advertising?

Filed under:Marketing Management — posted on June 16, 2008 @ 1:08 am

Each and every time it runs!

That’s the easy answer. After all, it’s your money and your business at stake.
You should be learning from every campaign. Here are some basic questions:

(1) How many customers did you reach?

(2) Why did they pick your business?

(3) What was in the ad that made them call or come in?

(4) What media did the best job?

That last question is the result of proper tracking. It’s like going to school. You
are given exams to test your knowledge and see if you are ready for the next level.
Without the tests, you don’t know how you are doing. Marketing must be measured
in the same fashion. Suppose you’re running a weekly newspaper ad. If it never
changes from week to week, which week did the best? So you have a small coupon
or offer that differs each week and that’s your tracking mechanism. The same
applies to any other medium,

The radio ad says ask for Sally at the tag line. When it runs in a different
station, they ask for Annie. Why the big deal? Because, how do you know which ad at
which time is doing the lion’s share of the work? Sure, you could survey every
customer that comes in, but who has the time and who wants to bother paying
customers?

If you run a Yellow Page ad or series of ads, jot down the page number of each
and when a customer calls, ask them for that number at the end of the call. Then,
you can determine your ROI or return on investment. You should be able to chart
how much each customer cost to acquire and whether the particular media is worth
the investment.

Every month you should adjust your program to reflect the results. Tracking
takes commitment and effort, but so does running a business. Every campaign
should allow for a tracking device and an expectation. There is no use throwing
good money after bad. Use the results to redesign the next promotion and learn
from your mistakes. Advertising isn’t an exact science and needs constant tweaking
and experimentation. Don’t be discouraged by poor results. Instead, learn and move
forward realizing that your customers are your best feedback as to why, or why not,
they are responding to your advertising.

Jeffrey Hauser - EzineArticles Expert Author

Jeffrey Hauser was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for
nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising
and has a Master’s Degree from Monmouth University. He had his own
advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design
firm, ABC Advertising. He has authored 6 books and a novel, “Pursuit of the
Phoenix,” available at amazon.com. His latest book is, “Inside the Yellow
Pages.” Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com,

a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.

Success Secrets - The #1 Money Secret I Learned from Interviewing Over 23 Millionaires

Filed under:Self Improvement Tips + More — posted on June 15, 2008 @ 10:18 am

All over the Net, people are asking you to pay them for ‘get rich’ secrets, all the ’systems’ have different names. Have you ever asked yourself this question, how many of them are really rich? Maybe a few, right?

Wouldn’t it be refreshing the learn money making secrets from ones who have documentation to back up there success? Then you know they are legit. They walk their talk. And then they are worth listening to. True?

Since 1998, I’ve hosted a business/self improvement radio show headquartered in New York. I’ve interviewed over 23 millionaires, many multi-millionaires. I’ve talked to the top CEO’s in America, top motivational speakers, best selling authors, marketing guru’s to name a few.

All these millionaires in their field left me with the same success ’secret’. It was truly incredible. The consistency in there messages is outstanding. If they all told me the same principle to winning in life and business, might this be the cornerstone to success in each of our lives.

Do you have somebody that has ‘done it’ that your ‘following’? Do you have somebody whose ‘done it’ that is helping you ‘do it’? Are you using the ’secret’ to success all successful people have used throughout history?

I’ve interviewed individuals with combined net worth over 607 million dollars. They’ve all had a mentor. Shouldn’t you?

Mike Litman

www.unleashyourgreatness.com/ns.html
www.mikelitman.com

Mike Litman’s Success Secrets

Mike Litman is the co-author of the #1 Best-selling book Conversations with Millionaires. Over the last 3 years, Mike has unleashed the greatness of tens of thousands of people worldwide. Networking Times Magazine called Mike Litman ‘a modern day Napoleon Hill’ and at the age of 30 he’s already shared the stage with well-known speakers such as Mark Victor Hansen and Bob Proctor.

Benefits of Outsourcing to the Online Businessperson

Filed under:Software Resources — posted on June 14, 2008 @ 7:50 pm

One of the nice things about making money online is that it can be done with no employee overhead. It’s simply not that labor intensive. Even web sites can be built with programs that makes their creation simple enough for a single human being. But if you need help with some of the side considerations (like accounting) or simply want help at some point, what do you do?

You could hire someone, but that’s a massive pain and in my opinion, a grossly unnecessary hassle. If you hire employees, you have to consider:

  • Benefits.
  • Employment law.
  • Meeting a regular payment schedule known as paying a salary.
  • Dealing with subordinates if they decide they don’t want to cooperate.

Fortunately, none of these are necessary to endure. None of the tasks you’ll ever encounter will need a constant source of dedicated attention known as an employee. You may get the occasional necessity, which you can handle with outsourcing. This is where you go out and hire a professional or company to do something for you as a third-party contractor.

This is vastly preferable to hiring an employee because:

  • You’re a customer, not a boss. The business or professional you’ve hired will be trying to retain you as a customer so you’ll pay them more money in the future. This puts you in a vastly superior position to being an employer.
  • You can hire per-task. This means if you just need one thing done, you hire someone to do it, pay them, and then you’re done. The person you hire in this regard then worries about finding their own future business, and there’s no expectation of a constant paycheck from you.
  • If the outsourced service does not perform adequately, you simply cease to use it and find another one. This is opposed to firing an employee, which is tough to do personally and can leave you searching months for a qualified replacement. This goes back to the ‘customer’ status as opposed to ‘employer’. The employer-employee relationship is far more restricting than the customer-business one. Customers have far better options than employers when things go wrong, and you’re a customer when you outsource.
  • You suffer no massive additions of trouble. You don’t need to balloon your overhead or burden yourself with the rigors of employment law and taxation compliance. The outsourced company worries with all that, and they’re set up to deal with it already.
  • You will still be helping the economy. I know you may have heard a lot of flak associated with the word ‘outsourcing’, but I don’t mean leave the country to hire someone. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, no service you’ll ever want or need is farther away than a local phone call or a short drive from your home. There are plenty of professionals and small businesses near you if you simply look for them. When you do business with them, it means they can continue to grow and possibly employ their own personnel. So you still contribute positively to someone else’s employment prospects without hanging yourself.

So someday, if you do want or need someone else to take care of something, I highly recommend you outsource. Employees are for larger organizations. As an online businessperson working for yourself, you may want one, but you’ll never need one.

Ryan Ambrose is the webmaster of Financial Self-Reliance, a web site about how to actually make money online. The Nuts and Bolts section that contains this and other articles related to the practical considerations of running a home-based business can be reached directly from here. Copyright 2006, Ryan Ambrose.

How to Create a Dynamic Marketing Plan — Part II: Breaking Down Your Goals

Filed under:Marketing Management — posted on @ 11:37 am

Copyright 2006 Sandra P. Martini

Now that you’ve got a list of your goals for the upcoming year, take a good look at them. You are most likely feeling a combination of exhilaration and trepidation with a little overwhelming sensation mixed in for good measure.

It’s okay, you’re not the first or only one to experience this. The next step is to break down each goal into manageable objectives. It’s as simple as the answer to the riddle “How do you eat an elephant?”

The answer is: One bite at a time. And that is how you tackle your goals small manageable pieces - categorize them in to groups as to whether they are 10 years , 5 years or one year goals.

Let’s assume one of your goals is to make $100,000 in the next year. By itself, it may seem overwhelming, but let’s “take it one bite at a time.”

1. Make it present tense.

It’s important to change the language of your goal so it reads as if you’ve already achieved it. This will activate your subconscious and let it know that you are serious about your goal.

2. Get emotional.

Make each goal your own by personalizing it and give it an emotion.

Watch what happens when we take the original goal of “My business will make $100,000 in the next year” and, factoring in numbers 1 and 2 above, change it to the following: “It’s December 31, 2007, I made $100,000 this year doing what I love in my business and I feel on top of the world!”

WOW what a change! See how alive your goal becomes?

3. Work backwards.

Start with your largest goal (in this case, ours is one year) and break it into smaller time periods that you can measure. For our goal, will you make $25,000 per quarter? Or, do you need time to ramp up so you anticipate making $5,000 in quarter one and then more for each of the last three quarters? Remember the goals have to be measurable and realistic and plan accordingly.

4. Know your target audience.

In order to reach your goals, you must know your target audience. And if you think that “everyone” is your target audience, you are wrong and wrong in a way that will cost you significant time, trouble and money.

Assuming you have limited marketing dollars, you want to spend them wisely. If you own a wedding gown boutique, which would be the more profitable thing to do: Send flyers announcing a sale to everyone in your town OR send flyers only to those women who subscribe to bridal magazines, have hired a wedding planner or booked a hall?

The answer is obvious. Defining your target audience matters. It matters more than most anything else you will do.

5. Where are they?

Knowing your target audience isn’t enough. You must know where they hang out, what they like, what they dislike and you need to be able to speak with them in theirlanguage.

So where does this leave us? A brief summary to pull it all together:

You’ve written your goals in present tense

You’ve added emotion

You’ve broken your goals into smaller timeframes and

You’ve identified your target audience and where they hang out

We’ll pull it all together in Part III when we add the daily and weekly action steps that will get you well on your way to accomplishing your goals.

Online Business Manager & Entrepreneur, Sandra Martini, publishes the ‘Effective Entrepreneur’ as a weekly e-zine. She also coaches small business owners to more efficiently manage their businesses while increasing profits and having fun. Sandra’s coaching programs are available via teleconferencing, emails and
telephone calls. Visit www.thebostonvirtualsolution.com for more information.

Amadeus Home Music School

The Amadeus Home Music School was founded by well trained, professional music teachers who are committed to creating a better, less expensive way for people to learn how to master the musical instrument of their choice. The reason the school is able to offer better quality musical instruction and therapy at lower cost to the consumer is because of the benefits of being online. The school does not maintain school buildings, which are expensive to operate and can be inconvenient for many to reach. Instead, the school, through the experience and dedication of its founders is able to provide an extensive staff of trained, experienced music teachers. These teachers not only possess outstanding musical talent, but they also have proven that they are also gifted instructors, with the ability to motivate and instruct students of all ages the instrument of their choice. When you sign up for lessons at the Amadeus Home Music School, we put you in contact with one of our teachers who will come to your home to instruct you or your child. No need to worry about the hassle of traveling to a music school or transporting your instrument. At the Amadeus Home Music School, the music teacher comes to you!

Internet Direct Mail Is Different: 14 Things To Remember

Filed under:Marketing Management — posted on @ 10:47 am

Internet Direct Mail (IDM) and Traditional Direct Mail (TDM) both have the same goals in mind. They are to generate leads or orders.

However, marketers need to respect that online media and print media present different hurdles in achieving this goal. Some of these hurdles will require that copy be written differently for each media. And some not.

Here is a list of 14 things you should remember when writing copy for Internet Direct Mail. And how each one relates to Traditional Direct Mail.

1. FROM and SUBJECT are very important. During the anthrax scare in America, these two items became very important in TDM because any given envelope could contain a deadly poison. And while this fear has passed for TDM, it is still very present in IDM. That’s because any given e-mail could contain a computer virus. Prospects are more apt to simply delete a message they are unsure of nowadays than risk opening it and ruining their computer.

Here are a couple of tips to solve this problem:

  • FROM line should display someone the readers will trust

  • for house lists, the prospect has presumably bought from the company before and would trust them. So include some company identifier: “FROM: Macromedia FLASH Team”

  • SUBJECT line should be treated like envelope teaser copy. You have to give the prospect some reason to open the e-mail to see what is inside. “SUBJECT: Try The New Update For Your Macromedia Product!”

2. Your first paragraph or two should contain a mini-version of your whole e-mail. So instead of carefully spreading out your 4 P’s (Promise, Picture, Proof, Push) or AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), you should try to get all these elements in early. Online users have little patience in general and they need to know your whole offer fast.

3. For readers willing to spend the time to read every word of your e-mail (God bless them), you can expand on your opening later. Just remember that less people will read right to the end than will scan your first couple of paragraphs. So include all your best stuff up front.

4. Avoid using “hard-sell” techniques in IDM. These tend to produce poor results. Readers on the internet expect to see information. The information can be on the benefits of your product and how to order, but the tone must remain helpful. If it’s slick, your email will be trashed.

5. You should include multiple response options for your prospects. But ALWAYS remember to have a web-based response form. Many online users prefer to keep the entire transaction online. That way the user keeps control and does not have to worry about more sales talk or being upsold when they phone in.

6. Limit the amount of click throughs in your IDM piece. Usually only the first 2 or 3 get used. The rest are ignored.

7. Premiums still work online. Maybe even better. You have the opportunity online to animate your premiums in action or even make them interactive. Try this out and see how it effects your results.

8. Sweepstakes work great online. This is because it is usually much easier for the prospect to quickly fill out their information on an online form than to fill out a paper-based form and then have to mail it.

9. Avoid the word FREE in the subject line. FREE is too blatantly promotional a word for people to bother opening your e-mail. Besides that, many online users now employ “spam filters” which work to screen out unwanted mail. FREE is often a word that these filters pick up and then they’ll delete your message before it ever reaches the prospect’s inbox.

10. A headline is a headline is a headline. Start your email off with one that will draw your reader into the package. Try to make it different from your SUBJECT line. Your best benefit up front usually does the trick. Injecting a news feel and some self-interest doesn’t hurt either.

11. ALWAYS include an opt-out statement! The only thing more powerful than good will towards your company is ill will. Don’t make any prospect feel like they’ve been spammed. Include an un-subscribe or remove statement at the end of your e-mail.

“We here at ABC Company respect your online privacy. If you received this message in error or simply do not wish to receive further e-mails from us, please reply to this e-mail and type REMOVE in the subject line.”

12. For once, shorter is better. In TDM, we all know that long copy generally works better. But in IDM, brevity is the key. If some of your prospects require more information before they make a purchasing decision, include a click-through to an expanded version of your e-mail.

13. Remember in IDM, you can use viral marketing techniques. This is not possible with TDM as you cannot tell a prospect to make 10 copies of your message and then pass them on to neighbors and friends. But in IDM, make sure the prospect understands that your fantastic deal is not exclusive to them. They should pass on this message to others they think would be interested.

14. Online users prefer free trials or bill me later offers to money-back guarantees. While online transactions are rising every day. Some prospects are still wary about sending their credit card info over the internet. They would much rather just send their shipping info. Try the product for a while. And then choose their payment option when the time comes.

About The Author

Aran Kay is a marketing consultant and freelance copywriter with experience working for Nintendo, Direct Energy, Kellogg’s and more. He has written numerous marketing articles and includes a selection of them on his web site. www.ProfessionalCopy.ca is also your source for “The 52 Best Marketing Web Sites.” It’s a great resource and yours FREE just for visiting his web site.

Web Site: http://www.professionalcopy.ca

E-mail: copywriting@professionalcopy.ca


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